Trump avoids condemning UK decision to recognise Palestine

US President Donald Trump has no apparent objection to the UK government’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state, the Middle East Eye reported on September 18th.

At a press conference with the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on September 18th, Trump acknowledged that he had a “disagreement” with Starmer.

Although he did not elaborate on this “disagreement”, he did emphasise a desire to free the remaining Israeli hostages still held in the Gaza Strip. “I want the hostages released now,” Trump said.

“I want the hostages released and I think it’s gonna be okay, but this has been a brutal period of time, but this has been going on for a long time,” he said. “We want the fighting to stop, and it’s going to stop,” the president continued.

Purportedly referring to the UK’s plan to recognise Palestine, Trump said: “I have a disagreement with the prime minister on that score. One of our few disagreements, actually.”

According to The Times, Keir Starmer has held back the announcement of being poised to recognise Palestine, until after Trump departs from the UK, in an attempt to prevent the issue from dominating the visit. However, Starmer denied this at the September 18th press conference.

The US President’s apparent reluctance to criticise the UK’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state is seemingly at odds with the position of the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who claimed the plan would make “Hamas feel more emboldened”.

Speaking at news conference in Israel, Rubio dismissed other nations’ plans to recognise a Palestinian state as “largely symbolic”.

The idea that Hamas would benefit from the recognition of a Palestinian state has been dismissed by British Transport Minister Heidi Alexander, despite Israel allegedly cautioning the UK against the recognition.

The UK government initially said it would recognise a Palestinian state if Israel failed to meet a series of British conditions. Two of these conditions were Israel’s commitment to a peace process and its pledge to not go ahead with annexing the West Bank.

On July 25th, the UK joined France in announcing its plan to recognise a Palestinian state; the nations joined Spain, Norway and Ireland, who recognised Palestine in May last year.

The UK Labour government’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state sparked disappointment, as family members of Israeli hostages, took part in a protest in London opposing the recognition of Palestine on August 10th.

Relatives of deceased hostages attending the protest, included Nadav Popplewell’s sister, Ayelet Stavitsky, and Tsachi Idan’s cousin, Adam Ma’anit. Tsachi Idan died in Hamas’ arms. Ma’anit said: “I think that the [UK] government got it wrong with its foreign policy, that it’s time for it to correct and refocus on the hostages.”

Middle East Eye, The Times, Maghrebi.org